DOMESTIC HELP.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1158, 20 June 1911, Page 9

DOMESTIC HELP.

A DEPUTATION. On Thursday, at Cliristchurch, a deputation was introduced to the Hon. U. Fowlds, praying that something should ba done to tram all girls 111 domestic work and to raise the position of the domestic help. A committed formed some time ago had suggested, among other proposals, that the status of the domestic helps should be raised by providing means for proper training and equipment. This would secure to • them the advantage of being ablo to insist on reasonable conditions from employers, and would sccuro to' employers reliable and efficient service. With tho view to providing training for all girls attending the primary schools, the Government should be asked to make domestic economy compulsory for girl.-i in Standards V and VI, and for girls in lower standards whose age is twelve and a half 111 tho preceding January. That a practice house should be provided at every domestic science centre, to be used for the purpose of training girls in general housework, and where lunch may be provided at a small charge for children attending the school. That domestic instruction should be made a compulsory subject for all girls holding junior free .places.at technical and high schools, and that it should be a pass subject for junior and senior Civil Service and matriculation examinations. The committee is of opinion that the time now allowed for domestic training in connection with the primary schools, forty hours per year, is not enough, and ■■ recommends that it should bo increased to two and a half hours per week. That in conncction with each technical high school a training hostel should be established," where students may .board, and where all pupils taking tho domestic science courso may receive instruction and practice in cookery, laundry work, and care of a house. That the Government should be asked to make attendance at continuation day classes in domestic science compulsory, and to enact that employers release girls for four hours weekly, to enable them to attend such classes until they are seventeen. That a creche should be attached to every training hostel, in order to teach students the care of infants. Tho creche would also be a great boon to many mothers.

~ li ? ss proposals were placed before the Minister, who appeared to find them somewhat overwhelming. . Objections brought forward (0 the suggestions were that already there was complaint of an overcrowded syllabus, and if two hours cx !ra a week were added fo it, other items in girls' education would bo seriously interfered with. There wero only live hours in the school day. More might ho done at technical school* and continuation ela>se?, he thought.' He had made an attempt to have compulsorv attendant at those classcs for both 'boys ; and-puis, but it wns not very successful, on account of opposition from employers. Asj it was now, it was in the hands of school commits, which know the conditions of the different districts. Tin would bo glad to help in securing efficient instruction to all girls, as all. whether do-,

[ lncstic workers or domestic employers, should be well (rained. There were lots ot women in A'ew Zealand with largo families who had done all their work enjoyed their lives, and attended to the mental and moral, as well as the physical, welfare of their children. One of the speakers (Mrs. Cole) said that the children nowadays were not of the same 'physique as tlio mothers in those days.